


a mess of colors

by overcomes



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: M/M, Some angst, painter au, sort of enemies to lovers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 09:18:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14329332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overcomes/pseuds/overcomes
Summary: Minhyun and Jaehwan are painters with different backgrounds who have to share an exhibit space and were asked by the organizers to paint each other.





	a mess of colors

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing Minhwan and I had a lot of fun. I hope you guys will like it as well, and once again, I want to remember everyone that English is not my first language so that's why my grammar (and writing as well) isn't the best!
> 
> Enjoy :)

Minhyun would have been lying if he said he was a 100% happy about getting this opportunity. He knew very well this was his chance to shine as a painter, but he certainly did not want to share that opportunity with Kim Jaehwan. When Jisung had called him last week to tell him he had been chosen to expose his works at the gallery Jisung works at, he had almost cried, but the news about Jaehwan sharing the exhibit space with him had left him perplexed. Minhyun and Jaehwan didn’t know each other that well, but they had met a couple of times thanks to common friends, and let’s just say they weren’t very fond of each other. Jaehwan was the type to be messy and loud and Minhyun hated that kind of people (not that Minhyun isn’t loud because God (especially Dongho) knows how talkative he is). Jaehwan was the type to always be kind of aggressive, and he never truly learned how to shut up. Therefore, Minhyun had never bothered trying to get to know him, as their personalities seemed to be too different to match.

Minhyun was now in the middle of the huge exhibit space, waiting for Jisung who had asked to meet him. Minhyun wandered around, looking at the empty walls and thinking how great his paintings would look here when suddenly, he heard a loud (and annoying) voice.

“Ha, Hwang. Didn’t know you were coming.”

Minhyun rolled his eyes.

“You _knew_ I would come, Jaehwan. We literally have to share the exhibit space.”

“Whatever,” shrugged Jaehwan, a bit too aggressively (which Minhyun surely had noticed and which made him smirk for making Jaehwan uncomfortable). “I don’t care about you, I just want Jisung to tell me what we have to do and go home because I haven’t slept yet and I’m tired as fuck.”

 _Yeah, no shit,_ thought Minhyun. Jaehwan stank alcohol, there was a dirty spot on his white shirt and his hair was a total mess.

“What are you looking at?” snapped Jaehwan.

“You look bad,” simply replied Minhyun.

“Oh wow, thank you for your comment, it was really necessary,” Jaehwan said in the most sarcastic tone ever.

Minhyun was about to add something when Jisung appeared out of nowhere, a huge smile plastered on his face as always.

“Hi! I see you two already know each other! Let’s go to my office and sit down to discuss a few things.”

* * *

 

It had been decided that Minhyun would get the left part of the exhibit space and Jaehwan would get the right one. Minhyun was lowkey upset about it, as the right part was the best one, but he had decided to not say anything and be mature and professional. Moreover, having gallery representation in such a renown one was already a gift from the gods.

“But what are you going to do about the walls in the middle of the room? It would be a shame to not use them. Isn’t where the best paintings are hung?” asked Jaehwan, furrowing his eyebrows in all seriousness. Minhyun was surprised of his professionalism. He was a totally different person when talking about art: the arrogance he usually displayed totally disappeared.

Somehow, Minhyun admired that. It was clear that Jaehwan was very passionate about art and painting and that it was very important to him. Not that Minhyun wasn’t passionate about it either, it was just that he had never been able to express his love for painting as he, in general, had trouble showing deep emotions. This side of him had always been a problem. People sometimes thought he was good at it and just painted as a hobby to make money when he was bored. It didn’t cross their minds that maybe, just maybe, Minhyun was a devoted artist who loved painting more than anything else in the world.

“I was going to come to that. With this project we want to show how two completely different artists can connect together; therefore, we would like you to paint each other!” said Jisung, throwing his hands in the air as if he had announced the best thing ever.

Minhyun was speechless. Paint Jaehwan? Jaehwan painting him? He didn’t know which option was the weirdest.

“Are you saying I have to paint this horse?”

 _Yeah,_ said Minhyun to himself, _never mind what I thought earlier_. _He has no sense of professionalism_. But if he was going to go down that lane, Minhyun might as well join him.

“Fuck you Jaehwan, have you looked at yourself? Jisung is it _really_ necessary..?”

“I’m afraid it is,” replied Jisung, awkwardly scratching his head, not knowing how to deal with the situation. “It was a request from the boss and I don’t think I can change his mind. You’ll have to deal with each other for the next few weeks, sorry.”

Jaehwan sighed and for once, Minhyun wasn’t annoyed by it, because he felt exactly the same.

“Come on guys, it’s a one-time opportunity, don’t ruin everything. I don’t know the reason why you two have beef, but you need to cooperate If you want this.”

Minhyun bit his lip, a bit indecisive. Jisung was right, this was the opportunity of his life, and he wanted to be the mature one here, but hell was it going to be a pain in the ass.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Yes, Minhyun! I knew I could count on you,” Jisung said, smiling. “Jaehwan?”

“Yes,” he mumbled under his breath.

“What did you say?”

“I said: yes, I’ll freaking do it,” he repeated much louder, glaring at both Jisung and Minhyun. “Now can I go?”

“Just sign this paper and you’re allowed to go!”

Jaehwan roughly took the paper in his hand and signed before throwing it to Minhyun and getting out as fast as possible out of the office.

“Well, he has one hell of a personality,” observed Jisung, laughing. 

“Let’s hope he doesn’t ruin everything,” sighed Minhyun, running a hand through his hair.

“It will be fine, Jaehwan needs this as much as you do. He just has a bad temperament.”

Minhyun signed the paper and got up to shake Jisung’s hand before leaving the building. Once outside, he scanned the area and spotted Jaehwan a few meters away from him, cursing and kicking some random rock. Minhyun smiled: he looked ridiculous. A true 5-year-old.

Minhyun gave one last look at his now co-worker and smiled. _Maybe that'll be fun_ , thought Minhyun. _Maybe._

* * *

 

A few days later, Minhyun was back at the gallery. He was supposed to meet up with Jisung and Jaehwan, this time to paint each other. Minhyun would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. It wasn’t Jaehwan that made him nervous, no, he was afraid Jaehwan might fuck everything up.

Moreover, he had no idea how he wanted to paint Jaehwan. He kept telling himself that he would probably find the inspiration on the spot, but the thought of not being able to paint anything kind of terrifies him. He usually painted about things that inspired him, things that he thought were beautiful, and as far as he knew, Jaehwan was none of those (well, he was kind of cute but Minhyun would rather die than to admit it).

He entered the building, the squeaky sound of his wet sneakers on the floor resonating in the big and empty place. From afar he was Jisung and Jaehwan chatting and laughing at some jokes Jisung had apparently made.

“Oh, hey Minhyun!” shouted Jisung once he saw the tall brunette.

“Hi,” replied Minhyun smiling.

He scanned the area, looking for anything that looked like canvas so he would get to work quickly, but there was nothing. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Uh, Jisung? What are we doing today? Aren’t we going to paint each other?”

“What?” exclaimed Jisung. “Oh no, I’ll leave the painting to you once you will go home! I asked you two to meet again because I want you to spend some time together before painting. We want to show how can two different artists can feel connected, we don’t want you guys to paint each other like complete strangers, you know?”

“Wait, so I’m here _to spend time_ with that guy?!” shouted Jaehwan.

“Hey no need to be rude, I didn’t ask for this either,” barked Minhyun back.

“Come on, I have a lot of fun activities or you to do! First, arcade games and coffee together!”

“But-“

“No buts. It’s in the contract you two signed yesterday. Either you do this or either you don’t. Now let’s go, the taxi is waiting for us outside.”

* * *

 

What could Minhyun do? Nothing. It was his fault for trusting Jisung too much. To his surprise, however, Jaehwan hadn’t complained that much. Well, he obviously didn’t look too happy about the idea, but it seemed he had calmed down since last time. Minhyun guessed that just like him, Jaehwan just waited for this to be over instead of trying to fight back.

“Here we are, I’ll pick you guys up in two hours. Have fun!”

Both Jaehwan and Minhyun sighed as they got out of the car to head into the flashy building filled with teenagers.

“So where do you want to start?” spoke Minhyun first.

“I don’t know.”

“Okay wanna try this one?” said the taller one, pointing at one game.

Jaehwan nodded, not being too excited about it, but while there were there, might as well have some fun.

* * *

 

“You cheated!”

“I didn’t, you were just jealous of my skills!” shouted a giggling Minhyun, almost tumbling over his own feet.

The two boys were absolutely wasted. It was around 11:00 PM and they had both received approximatively 20  texts and 12 missed calls from Jisung who was panicking, wondering if the two of them had finally decided to kill each other. But no, they were here laughing together as if they had been best friends forever.

After playing some games at the arcade, they had decided to grab a drink at some local bar, and before they even knew it, they had drunk more than enough to make them feel dizzy.

Minhyun actually liked Jaehwan’s company. Sometimes he would say dumb things, but overall Minhyun realized he wasn’t that bad. _He is even pretty_ , said Minhyun to himself. The two boys were in a taxi, going back to Minhyun’ apartment because Jaehwan was too drunk to remember where he had put his keys, so Minhyun, being the kind (and also very drunk) person he was, had proposed the other to crash at his place. Jaehwan had his head resting against the car window, looking at the empty streets, while Minhyun was staring at him. Jaehwan looked beautiful, how come Minhyun had never noticed how pretty his lips were? How soft his hair seemed to be?

Minhyun tried to shake these thoughts away. _You don’t like him, remember_ , said a little voice inside his head. But no matter what, Minhyun couldn’t help but think how much he would like to paint those godly features of his.

They finally arrived at Minhyun’s place and it took them at least ten minutes to climb the stairs without tripping or laughing for no reason. Once they entered Minhyun’s flat, Jaehwan threw himself on the couch and Minhyun went to join him, crushing Jaehwan under his fit and slender body.

“Get off me!” shouted the younger one.

“No,” Minhyun giggled. “You’re comfortable.”

Jaehwan sighed and shifted under Minhyun to get the taller one off of him, but it didn’t work, and the two boys suddenly were facing, their noses touching, eyes staring at each other.

Normally, the situation would be awkward and one of them would move away and mumble some incomprehensive words to get out of this situation, but on the contrary, none of them moved and they stayed like this for at least five minutes.

“You’re cute,” suddenly blurted out Jaehwan.

Minhyun smirked, his mouth moving to Jaehwan’s ear.

“You’re cute too.”

And before Jaehwan was able to say anything, Minhyun got up and threw a blanket at the younger one before telling him good night and crashing on his bed.

* * *

 

When Minhyun woke up this morning it took him a while to remember all the things that had happened last night. However, when he did, he froze, absolutely mortified. He couldn’t help but be embarrassed and secretly hoped Jaehwan didn’t remember him being a flirty little shit.

Despite wanting to hide forever, he knew he had to face the consequences of his actions and got up after downing a bottle of water. He opened his room’s door, hoping that Jaehwan had left, but what he saw surprised him. Jaehwan was awake and making _freaking_ breakfast, and Minhyun would lie if he said that he didn’t look cute with his puffy eyes and messy hair.

“Hey! I’m sorry, I didn’t want to be too intrusive but after last night, I felt like I needed to apologize so I'm trying to make breakfast. I have no idea what happened, but I guess I’m thankful for bringing me back here?”

 _Oh,_ Minhyun said to himself, _he doesn’t remember_. Somehow Minhyun didn’t know if he should be thankful or not, but he decided to shrug it off and help Jaehwan.

“Your cooking skills seem awful,” laughed Minhyun, eyeing the mess Jaehwan had done.

“I actually wanted to order something, but I think I spent all my money on last night’s drinks.”

Minhyun laughed and went to help him, certainly not wanting Jaehwan to burn his kitchen. 

A couple minutes later they were done with cooking and finally were able to enjoy a real meal. The two of them would talk about random things, and when it was silent, it wasn’t awkward or anything. Since Jaehwan didn’t remember anything, Minhyun felt like he could relax and talk to him as if nothing had happened, and it was funny to say that twenty-four hours ago, they couldn’t stand each other. It was even _weird,_ but none of them wanted to talk about it: they felt okay with the way things were right now.

* * *

 

Days and days passed and Jaehwan and Minhyun had gotten closer. After that famous night, they were comfortable around each other. Jisung himself could not even believe it: he knew Minhyun was stubborn and Jaehwan was even more stubborn, and he seriously wondered what had happened between the two of them.

Jisung didn’t need to force them to go out together anymore since the two boys would do it naturally. They met up for coffee, to see a movie, to go shopping or sometimes to just talk about stuff, like painting or how astrology was interesting.

The exhibit was coming soon and Minhyun was almost done with his painting of Jaehwan. It looked nice and though Minhyun had always been pretty confident about his art, he couldn’t help but worry a little. He was afraid Jaehwan might not like it.

He had to admit it: he liked Jaehwan a lot. And not only because he was cute and had a pretty smile, but because he was deep down someone very good and hard-working.

Today was the day of the reveal of each other’s paintings and Minhyun felt like he was going to throw up because of how nervous he was. He kept asking himself questions: _will he like it? How did he paint me? What if he thinks I’m the shittiest painter on earth?_ Though his friend Dongho had tried to calm him down, Minhyun couldn’t help but feel this way.

He arrived at the exhibit space a bit late due to him overthinking, Jaehwan and Jisung being already there and in an animated conversation.

“Minhyun! How are you?

“Good! Good…” He said, blinking.

“Alright! Are you guys ready to show each other’s work?”

 _No_ , almost said Minhyun out loud, but it was not as if he could turn back time.

“Alright, at 3, reveal the painting! One, two…”

Minhyun’s heart pounded fast and he closed his eyes as Jisung shouted a loud _“Three!”_ and turned the painting over for Jaehwan to see it.

And when he opened his eyes, what he saw hurt him.

Jaehwan was laughing. He wasn’t laughing at Minhyun’s painting, no, he was laughing at its own work. Because his work was a joke, _everything was a total joke for Jaehwan_. Indeed, he had painted a freaking horse. _A horse._  

“Isn’t it funny? It’s because the first time we met I called you a horse,” Jaehwan said, obviously proud of his little joke.

But Minhyun and Jisung weren’t laughing at all. Jisung was furious and disappointed, death glaring at Jaehwan for being so irresponsible and insensitive. Minhyun couldn’t even say anything, he felt betrayed. Were their conversations and all the time they had spent together a joke to him? He felt used, humiliated and wanted to run home.

Jaehwan seemed to notice that Jisung and Minhyun weren’t amused and scratched his head while laughing awkwardly. Minhyun closed his eyes and took a deep breath _. It’s okay,_ he kept repeating, _it’s okay._ He stood up and handed Jaehwan his painting.

“Here is my work. I will now go, I don’t think I need to stay here anymore. Goodbye.”

And he stormed off.

* * *

 

Minhyun felt miserable. He was home, watching a cheesy movie and eating ice cream: what he always did when he was sad. He was trying his best to not think about Jaehwan but everything reminded him, from the couch where he had told him he was cute to the male lead of the movie who was a loud but beautiful jerk.

He hadn’t checked his phone at all, deciding to shut everything off. He had no idea if Jaehwan or Jisung had tried to contact him, all he wanted was to stay indoors and rest.

Suddenly, he heard someone knocking on his door and he remembered he had just ordered a pizza, but when he opened the door, he was not expecting to be face to face with Jaehwan.

“Minhyun I-“

“ _Get out_.”

“No, Minhyun, please listen to me.”

Minhyun sighed and let him in. Though he was upset, he was curious as to what Jaehwan was about to say. Jaehwan looked like a sad puppy as well, visibly feeling bad about the situation, but Minhyun quietly stared at him, his arms crossed, and one eyebrow raised, trying to not show that he had affected by his actions.

“I’m sorry,” blurted out Jaehwan.

Minhyun laughed. _That was it?_

“Well, thank you, but you can go now-“

“No,” interrupted Jaehwan. “I wasn’t finished.”

“I fucked up big time and I know it. I don’t know why I did this- well, I actually know, but it was definitely stupid of me. I like you a lot Minhyun, but I never felt like I deserved to be part of your life. I’m a jerk, I judged you before even knowing you only because your family is rich, not even knowing that you struggle as an artist as well. You’re perfect Minhyun, I mean it. You’re like the nicest person I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and I didn’t feel like it was right for me to be in your life. I like you and I was scared and confused as to how our relationship had suddenly changed and I didn’t feel ready, I wanted us to go back to when we disliked each other, to when it was easier to ignore you.”

Minhyun’s heart almost stopped. _Did Kim Jaehwan apologized and basically confessed to him?_

“I understand if you don’t accept my apology. I clowned you when you were working hard to paint something beautiful. But just know that I hope you will come to the exhibition tomorrow. And don’t worry, I replaced the painting of the horse by an actual painting of you that I did a couple days before... ”

Minhyun slowly nodded, trying to keep his calm. He wandered around his flat, looking at his reflection in the window while Jaehwan stood there, confused. Minhyun partly understood Jaehwan. After getting to know him, he knew Jaehwan had some issues with himself and had basically zero confidence at all despite him acting like he was the man all the time, and Minhyun certainly did not want to lose what could be the start of something.

“Do you like me or do you _really_ like me Jaehwan?”

“Pa-pardon?”

“I said,” Minhyun’s voice being louder this time, “do you really like me?”

Minhyun walked up to Jaehwan, staring at him, while the younger one baffled some confusing words, obviously not expecting Minhyun to just say that.

“I- I mean yeah, but like, I don’t know, do you? I- yes, I really like you,” he finally said.

Minhyun smiled. It was funny to see Jaehwan freak out, he looked even cuter and if Minhyun wasn’t still a bit angry at him right now, he would kiss him.

“Jaehwan, I like you as well. I accept your apologies as I know you’re not a bad person, you’re just scared. And it’s okay, I am too sometimes, but if you’re willing to accept me with my flaws, just like I’m doing with you, then we could start something.”

Jaehwan stopped breathing for a moment, wondering how such a perfect creature could be attracted to the stupid loser he was, but he smiled, slowly. He didn’t deserve Minhyun, but for once he would allow himself to be selfish.

“Thank you Minhyun.”

And just like this, they knew it was the start of something new.

* * *

 

 _“Boys!”_ shouted Jisung on the phone. “ _I have excellent news for you_.”

It had been two days since the exhibition and it had gone very well. Many people came and they had received a lot of compliments for their work, some people expressing their interest in buying a couple of paintings.

They were now in Minhyun’s flat, sat on the couch and eager to hear what Jisung had to tell them.

“ _I got a couple calls from people, and everybody absolutely loved your works! The town’s magazine even wrote an article about your bond, saying that ‘despite two different styles, there was an undeniable chemistry between the two young painters’. This is amazing! Some people even made offers to buy some of your paintings_.”

“Wow,” said the two artists in unison. If only these people knew what their relationship looked like a month ago. 

They were shocked. Neither of them had received this amount of attention before  and they felt like it was a dream.

“ _You two are gonna go far, I can feel it,"_ added Jisung.

Minhyun and Jaehwan smiled at each other. Somehow, they could feel it too. They could feel that it was far from being the end.

“Yeah, we’ll go far.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and please, do leave comments and kudos if you liked the story, it is always very appreciated!


End file.
